Written by: Caleb Gilliam-Scott
In a story of ever-increasing expansion, the European Patent Office has signed a validation agreement with Costa Rica, marking the first such agreement with a country located across the Atlantic.
Costa Rica joins the likes of Morocco, Tunisia, Moldova, Cambodia, Georgia, and Laos as part of the so-called “validation system” where the protection conferred by granted European patents is reciprocated in kind in selected validation sates upon payment of a fee, without having to undergo dedicated patent examination in the national office of that state.
It has not yet been announced when the agreement with Costa Rica will enter into force, but such agreements typically enter into force between 1 and 4 years of their signing. A validation agreement with Laos is also currently awaiting an effective date, so it will be interesting to see if the two enter into force at the same time.
The addition of Costa Rica to the validation system follows a recent trend where more countries with less developed patent systems, who may sometimes be overlooked for national protection, are choosing to effectively elect the European Patent Office as the body responsible for granting patents under their national law.
